PCCP to hold Latin American course sessions for young professionals in various Latin America universities

Several courses or modules will be organized in various universities across Latin America and coordinated with UNESCO Montevideo field office:

• a 4-month online course addressed to post-graduate students at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Argentina;
• one module as a post graduate activity (one week) and two modules included in a graduate course of the faculty of Geography (4 months) of the University of Buenos Aires;
• some modules included in the Environmental Engineering postgraduate course of the University of Caracas, Venezuela.

The objectives of the courses are (i) to improve the knowledge of IWRM (Integrated Water Resource Management), (ii) to improve the understanding of the process of conflict transformation and provide instruments for negotiation and (iii) to strengthen regional diplomacy as it relates to water resources.

The courses will use PCCP materials that were specifically developed for Latin America and published during the 2nd phase of the programme. As an interdisciplinary capacity building/enhancement activity, the course was designed by a group of experts with various backgrounds (law, hydrology, social sciences, diplomacy, etc.) from different countries in order to create links and foster dialogue among them.

PCCP Website

"Transboundary Water Management" Symposium to address water scarcity leading to increased competition among users

All available predictions agree that there is a growing water scarcity and it is estimated that within 25 years, two-thirds of the world's inhabitants will live in countries with serious water problems. Growing demand, inadequate water governance, excessive abstraction and climate change coupled with the fact that quality of water is deteriorating in many parts of the world due to pollution, has put both surface and groundwater resources under severe stress in many parts of the world. Transboundary water resources additionally face political, cultural and ethical challenges.

Cooperative arrangements, based on a multi-disciplinary approach integrating scientific, social, economic and institutional components, are crucial in order to jointly develop, manage and protect transboundary waters, to avoid conflict, to optimise the sustainable utilisation of these resources and to ensure water security.

A symposium jointly organised by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), UNESCO Chair INWEB, UNESCO-IHP, Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) on "Transboundary Waters Management" is going to be held from 15th - 18th October 2008 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Objectives of the Symposium

• Assess the state of the art and the progress recently made in the sustainable management of transboundary waters by different disciplines such as law, socio-economics and water science
• Review current major international programmes concerned with the assessment and management of transboundary water resources
• Promote interdisciplinary approaches for integrated transboundary water resources management

Symposium Themes

The main topic of the symposium is Transboundary Surface Waters and Shared Aquifers:

• Common monitoring Networks
• Sharing Data and Information
• Remote Sensing, Cooperative Modelling & Simulation
• International Political Issues, Decision Making & Conflict Resolution
• Involving Stakeholders in Transboundary Areas
• Institutional & Legal Issues
• Transboundary Water Economics
• Planning under Climate Change
• EU Policy in Transboundary Water Issues
• Education and Training, with an emphasis on shared aquifers

Side Event

A one and a half-day course will take place before the start of the main symposium, commencing in the afternoon of Monday 13th October and finishing on Tuesday 14th October 2008.

The course is being developed by a UNESCO IHP Task Force on Transboundary Groundwater Education. It is intended to promote inter-disciplinary and inter-professional practical tools to facilitate concrete responses to transboundary groundwater sustainable management issues.

Symposium website

PCCP convenes 2nd Workshops on Mono River and Ostua-Metapan Case Studies

In the context of the development of its case studies on the Mono River basin, shared by Togo and Benin and the Ostua-Metapan aquifer, shared by Guatemala and El Salvador, UNESCO’s PCCP Programme held the case studies’ second workshops in Lomé, Togo (16-18 July), and Lago Guija, Guatemala (27 August), respectively.

The Committees of the case studies, created during the first workshops in Cotonou, Benin (March 2008) and San Salvador, El Salvador (March 2008), were enlarged to include representatives of the IHP National Committees of all countries, the IHP-PCCP Programme Specialist, and the UNESCO-Accra and Montevideo Programme Specialists, representatives from the Ministries linked with water resource management and representatives of civil society, NGOs and the National Water Partnerships of all countries.

The paramount objective of PCCP case studies is to (a) foster cooperation among the riparian states concerned with the selected water body, and (b) increase the degree of knowledge about that water body. This is achieved through the involvement of high-level players, governmental advisers and a host of experts and stakeholders. The whole process will provide opportunities for dialogue and access to information on related issues. It will also improve all stakeholders’ knowledge of the reality and needs of the human and natural components of this ecosystem.

The final versions of the case studies will be launched at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul (16-23 March 2009).

PCCP Website

Access a complete list of water events around the world

• The world is experiencing a dramatic increase of suffering from the effects of disasters, ranging from extreme droughts to huge floods, caused by the poor water and land management and possibly by climate change.
• The burden of loss, of course, is greatest in poor countries, where 13 times more people die from such events than in rich ones.
• Some 75% of the world's population lives in areas affected at least once by earthquake, tropical cyclone, flood or drought between 1980 and 2000.
• As a result of disasters triggered by earthquake, tropical cyclone, flood or drought more than 184 deaths per day are recorded in different parts of the world.
• More than 2,200 major and minor water-related disasters occurred in the world between 1990 and 2001. Of these, floods accounted for half of the total disasters, water-borne and vector disease outbreaks accounted for 28% and drought accounted for 11% of the total disasters. Of these disasters, 35% occurred in Asia, 29% in Africa, 20% in the Americas, 13% in Europe and 3% in Oceania.
• The impacts from just one single disaster have, in some cases, lowered the Gross National Product (GNP) in poor economies by as much as 10%.
• Annual economic losses associated with such disasters averaged US $75.5 billion in the 1960s, US $138.4 billion in the 1970s, US $213.9 billion in the 1980s and US $659.9 billion in the 1990s.
• More people were affected by disasters during the 90s than over the previous decade - up from an average of 147 million per year (1981-1990) to 211 million per year (1991-2000).
• Floods accounted for over 65% of people affected by natural disasters, while famine affected nearly 20%.
• Between 1973 and 1997 an average of 66 million people a year suffered flood damage, making flooding the most damaging of all natural disasters.
• From 1991 to 2000, drought has been responsible for over 280,000 deaths and has cost tens of millions of US dollars in damage.
• The Indian state of Orissa experienced massive flooding in 2000, followed in 2001 by the worst drought in a decade and new floods. Out of a population of 32 million, some 27 million people were affected.
• The Zimbabwe drought of the early 1990s was associated with an 11 percent decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a 60% decline in the stock market; more recent floods in Mozambique led to a 23% reduction in GDP while the 2000 drought in Brazil led to a 50% decrease in projected economic growth.

Information from the 1st World Water Development Report 'Water for People, Water for Life', and the publication 'Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development' [PDF format - 3.87 MB].

- International Hydrological Programme
- World Water Assessment Programme
- UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
- Water-related Institutes and Centres under the Auspices of UNESCO
- UNESCO Water-related Chairs

Access the UNESCO Water Portal Update archives (starting at issue N° 85)

For contributions or comments, contact the editor at waterportal@unesco.org